The term "station" is used to designate any electronic control or monitoring device, automatic work station, or computer, forming a part, for example, of a manufacturing line, of a set of computers interconnected by a bus, or of a telecommunications exchange in which the "stations" are electronic devices such as registers, call chargers, markers, translators, control units, or connection units all connected to a switching network. The stations can thus dialog with one another, or be independent, or be under the control of a central control unit.
A station may emit warning signals, with each warning signal having a precise meaning such as some parameter or value reaching a threshold, or wrong operation, or a breakdown of a unit in the station. The term "alarm" is used below for any fault or breakdown that is signalled. A knowledge of such alarms provides information on the operating state of the station.
Alarms are generally conveyed by cables to a central station where they are analyzed, thereby concentrating cabling by an amount which depends on the number of stations and on the number of alarms per station, with all the drawbacks that stem therefrom, in particular bulky cabling and high cost.
An object of the invention is to collect alarms from stations in a set of stations without suffering the drawbacks of such alarms being collected by individual cabling.